The Bagel Incident

The other night we all decided to go to a local store, called Todohogar, that is kind of like a scaled down Target. They sell lots of kitchen and bathroom things, as well as TVs, DVDs, refrigerators, stoves, etc. And if you think that the commercialization of Christmas is bad in the States, this place takes the cake ... on October 1st they had a huge sign in front of their store promoting their Christmas products. There is an entire corner of the store filled with fake Christmas trees, snow covered houses, ornaments and other paraphernalia. Ugh. Anyway, while Lucho and his mom were looking at a stove I wandered off with Christina and her cousin, to check out the kitchen aisles. There were lots of decorative napkin holders, centerpieces and other things and I had to laugh when I saw a bunch of plastic bagels. Bagels are unheard of here in Loja. Back when I was a Peace Corps volunteer I remember someone selling homemade bagels in Quito, but that is the only time I've seen bagels in Ecuador. The funniest thing was that they all had stickers on them that said "Made in China". How these things ever made it to a store in Loja, I'll never know. At any rate, Christina picked one up to show her cousin and the next thing I know one of the store clerks came over to me and informed me that my daughter had bit the plastic bagel. She showed it to me and there actually were little bite marks on it (turns out that the bagels were made of styrofoam and easily broken). She then told me that they wouldn't be able to sell it like that and handed it back to me. I thought that she was just trying to make me feel guilty so I kind of ignored her and put it back on the shelf. Then as I tried to walk out of the door she ran after me, bitten bagel in hand, and informed me that I would have to buy the thing. Poor Christina looked so embarrassed, "I said I was sorry" she whispered. I just thought that this woman has way too much "company spirit". I couldn't help but think about the typical bored Target employee. They would have either laughed or ignored the whole thing. But this was Ecuador, and this woman was taking her job very seriously. I had no choice but to buy the thing. Luckily it only cost 90 cents. We ended up giving it to Lucho's sister as a toy for her cat. And I guess Christina will never bite a plastic bagel ever again.